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1.6 Who am I, First Experience With Race & Sense of Self Brainstorm

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1.6 Who am I, First Experience With Race & Sense of Self Brainstorm

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Theme 1: Who Am I? Activity

1. Who am I?

I am a Twenty-year-old College Student who plans to get her AA

2. Who do I pretend to be?

I pretend to be someone who truly knows what they're doing, but I don't.

3. Who do people think I am?

I'm not sure what people would think of me. Some see me as quiet and reserved; others see me as fun and happy.

4. Who do I wish I could be?

I wish I could be more disciplined and confident.

5. How has race or ethnic identity played a role in any of these responses?

It plays a role because people are afraid of acting a certain way because of their skin color. (stereotypes)

Theme 2: First Experience With Race Activity

1. What was your first experience with race?

I think the first actual bad experience with race was on social media, just observing. Then again, I don't know if a teacher comparing you to MJ is a bad race experience.

2. How old were you?

I was fairly young, watching the news about race conflicts.

3. What emotions do you associate with the experience?

I think I was confused because, for the most part, I didn't know what was going on at that time.

4. Have you ever talked about the experience?

I mean, we always talk about race in our day-to-day lives. It's nothing new to us.

5. How have your early experiences with race shaped your worldview?

I think I look at it as hard because, as a person of color, it's easy to see that we don't get the respect we deserve. We are always hated in some aspects of life by other races.

Theme 3: Positive Sense of Self Brainstorm

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 2.4 Ubuntu, Afrocentricity and Nguzo Saba

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 2.4 Ubuntu, Afrocentricity and Nguzo Saba

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THEME 1: Ubuntu

1. The concept of Ubuntu is uniquely African. After reading the assigned reading and analyzing the short video by Dr. Nelson Mandela, do you think that the spirit of Ubuntu is alive and well today in African American culture? Explain your answer and give an example of why you have chosen your position.

The spirit of Ubuntu is alive in today's African American culture. Although it might not be prevalent in every culture, it is prevalent in some individuals. For example, the strong sense of community and mutual support often seen in African American neighborhoods, churches, and social organizations reflects the Ubuntu principles of interconnectedness and shared responsibility.

2. Compare and contrast in detail, and provide examples of any parallels/similarities that you have been able to identify between African cultures and African American cultures. Has this concept of Ubuntu changed your worldview at all? Explain.

One of the Biggest connections between African and African American cultures is the emphasis on community. In some African societies, the philosophy of Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) has highlighted the importance of interconnectedness. This is reflected in African American culture through close-knit family structures.

Another way to connect is through music and dance, which serve as powerful expressions of identity, resistance, and spiritual connection in both African and African American cultures. African drumming, call-and-response singing, and polyrhythmic beats have directly impacted gospel, blues, jazz, hip-hop, and even modern dance forms like stepping and breakdancing.

Finally, Strong traditions of resistance to oppression have been embedded in African and African American communities. The mindset of resistance has remained a cultural foundation, from African American civil rights heroes against structural racism to African warriors fighting against colonization.

The Ubuntu concept, which emphasizes interconnectedness, compassion, and shared humanity, has deepened my understanding of the importance of community and the collective well-being of its members.

THEME 2: 7 Concepts of Afrocentric Psychology

1. Choose and define the concept that you feel is most present in the African American community. Provide an example of how you have witnessed the concept you have chosen.

I Choose Sankofa because it means "go back and fetch it." Which symbolizes the importance of learning from the past to build a better future. African American communities emphasize learning history to empower the future. From celebrations of Juneteenth to the shared black history during the year, especially on Black History Month, teaching younger generations the struggles their ancestors went through during Slavery and their Fight for freedom.

2. Then, define and provide an example of the concept that you feel is least present in the African American community. Also, provide an example.

In my opinion, inclusive metaphysical epistemology is the least prevalent concept in African American society. In many African spiritual cultures, knowledge is acquired through heavenly revelation and logical reasoning. In addition to empirical observation, divination, dreams, and ancestral messages are legitimate sources of wisdom. However, many African Americans lack this holistic way of thinking due to the influence of Western education and religion.

THEME 3: 7 Principles of Nguzo Saba

1. Choose one of the 7 Principles of Nguzo Saba and define it on your Padlet. Then explain why it resonates with you and how you feel you have seen this value in action in the African American community. Provide an example.

Ujima means "to build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together." Ujima resonates with me because it showcases the power of unity and shared responsibility in overcoming struggles. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Black-led organizations stepped up to provide food, financial assistance, and educational resources to needy families. I also saw many Black-led protests during COVID-19, with communities coming together to protest injustices.

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3.1: MULTIDIMENSIONS OF ETHNIC SELF IDENTIFICATION

1. State your selections under the category of Natal Measures and also state why you chose them. Provide examples.

Within the category of Natal Measures, I chose because:

I was born in Belflower, California. This is important to me because this is where my journey started.

I have no siblings and was raised by a single parent, my mother.

My Grandmother lives in Vegas, and sadly, I don’t see her often.

I don’t know much about my ancestors or haven’t asked about it.

2. State your selections under the category of Behavioral Measures and also state why you chose them. Provide examples.

Within the category of Behavioral Measures, I chose because:

I have three close friends and some acquaintances. I tend to stick to myself as I get a little nervous interacting with people.

I tend not to judge a book by its cover with people and judge how it acts toward me to give a final judgment of character.

I tend to engage in more art and “funny” content for media purposes than anything.

As for food, I don’t have many preferences as I like to try different cuisines.

I am not religious and don’t practice it.

3. State your selections under the category of Situation-Contextual Measure and also state why you chose them. Provide examples.

Within the category of Situation-Contextual Measure, I chose because:

I identify as a Black American. I choose this because I am a Black American; that’s what I was born as, and I cannot and will not change it.

I am proud to be Black and part of the black Community. Even though the Community had ups and downs, I will never shy away from my ethnic group.

Groups: Black American Community, Dog Owners Community, Art Community

I chose these because they’re what I connect with more than anything.

4. State your selections under the category of Subjective Measures and also state why you chose them. Provide examples.

I am college-educated; even if it is not entirely, I am still college-educated.

Although I am not religious or believe in a “God,” I still believe in a higher power through spirituality. I think this because everyone needs something to believe in.

3.2: MULTI-GROUP ETHNIC IDENTITY MEASURE

1. My Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure score is (state score).

My score is 35.

2. To me, this score means that (state your analysis.)

This score means that I understand my ethnic group, Its struggles, and adversities, and I know full well what I could go through later in life, but that does not mean I’m going to stop learning and supporting my Community.

3. I think that this means that I have a (strong/week) bond with the (fill in ethnic group) because (state explanation.)

It means I have a medium bond with my Black ethnic group. It might not be as strong as others, but if asked later in life, I might have a different answer.

4. Explain anything that surprised you about this analysis?

I’m not surprised by this; I know myself pretty well.

3.3: ROSENBERG’S SELF-ESTEEM SCALE

1. State your score after taking the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale.

My Self-Esteem Score is 19, which means I am in the normal range with room to improve.

2. State what your score means to you and your understanding of your self-esteem.

My score of 19 means I still have a way to be confident in myself. It also means I’m still learning, growing, and accepting who I am, my flaws, and my truths.

3. State why you believe your score is the number that it is. Provide examples.

I suffered from low Self-Esteem due to others' actions in childhood, but slowly, over time, I’ve grown (and am still growing) to accept myself for who I am despite my flaws.

3.4: RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

I chose the stage Immersion/Emersion because I've noticed how some places and communities feel oppressive. They are full of hidden meanings and microaggressions that make me feel conscious of my Blackness without being uplifting. You see this in communities of mixed support, like Anime, Games, and Art. It's hard to find spaces that support my desire to be surrounded by my own people without having people try to erase that.

I didn't give race any thought as a child; I just wanted to blend in. No one ever discussed racism or race the way we do now. Adults never discussed it with me, so maybe I wasn't listening, but it was never brought up. I honestly thought I would be treated the same as everyone else if I put in a lot of effort and avoided troubles.

I think it clicked when I saw all the stuff on TV about racial inequality and police brutality. That and when a teacher compared me to Michael Jackson because i was wearing gloves in class. (I still don't know if I can count that)

1. State one thing that you learned from this process.

This has taught me how much societal factors and individual experiences affect the forming of racial identity. It's a journey, and every phase shows a change in self-perception, awareness, and understanding as a Black person navigating a society that frequently devalues Blackness.

3.5: FIND YOUR RACIAL IDENTITY RESOURCE

https://www.aaihs.org/black-identity-and-the-power-of-self-naming/

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Black Identity and the Power of Self-Naming | AAIHS

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Kill the Bill IV Protest in London, England, UK on May 29, 2021 (Loredana Sangiuliano, Shutterstock) Black identity is the most political social identity us…

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1. Please post a response to the google slide above. What types racism from slide 2 have you seen in the world? What examples from slide 3 have you seen in the world?

The types of racism I have seen in the world are systemic racism, which is embedded in many society institutions, such as the criminal justice system, the workplace, healthcare, and education.

Another type of racism I have seen is Interpersonal racism, which is direct, person to person prejudice, which has many forms, such as overt behaviors to subtler microaggressions.

2. From the chapter reading, do you think that we live in a post-racial society? Please state why or why not.

No, I do not believe we live in a post-racial society. Because while I do believe that progress has been made in addressing racial inequality and systemic and interpersonal racism. They still continue to impact Black communities and other marginalized groups.

3. What is your personal definition of race and do you think that race is a social construct, a biological construct or something else? Please explain your reasoning.

Race is a social construct classification system used to group people according to perceived physical characteristics, including skin color, facial features, and hair texture. Since definitions and meanings of race have changed throughout time and differ among cultures, race is basically a social construct. Race is usually used as a tool for discrimination and power and has reinforced societal hierarchies rather than reflecting innate biological differences.

4. Search and find one resource regarding race being a social or biological concept and post it to your Padlet. State its significance and if you agree or disagree with the resource based on your definition of race.

https://www.governing.com/now/the-social-construct-of-race-that-unnecessarily-divides-us

This source explains how race is a social construct that is used to explain social and economic inequality rather than a biological or genetic . By acknowledging that race is socially created, structural injustices can be addressed.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. State its significance.

I learned that Race and racism are closely connected, Race is a social construct used to categorize people while racism is the belief that certain races are superior or inferior. While Race does not truly lead to racism, racism exists because societal veiws have assigned meaning, hierarchy, and power to racial categories.

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On a seemingly daily basis, we hear about racist incidents that suggest both America's obsession with and inability to deal effectively with race. These include the recent incident in which a Black Kansas City teenager was shot in the head and arm by a white man when he knocked on the wrong door while attempting to pick up his younger brothers. Thankfully, the 16-year-old is expected to recover. But all too often the outcome is far more tragic, as when an unarmed 25-year-old Black man died last year after being shot more than 60 times by police in Akron, Ohio. Just a few days ago, a grand jury declined to indict any of the officers involved.

Public officials committed to governing effectively will have to do a much better job of understanding the importance of race and how it continues to play a role in almost all facets of society.

This begins with accurately defining the term "race." Most reputable biologists, geneticists and social scientists tell us that race is a social construct, not a genetic or biological fact. As Michael Yudell, a professor of public health at Drexel University, put it in 2016, race is a concept that "is too crude to provide useful information" and one "that has social meaning that interferes in the scientific understanding of human genetic diversity."

More than a century earlier, W.E.B. Du Bois, one of America's most acclaimed sociologists, expressed concern that race was being used as a biological explanation for what he understood to be social and cultural differences. Many admirers of his seminal 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk, repeat his much-quoted statement on race: "The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line." But they ignore the conclusions in his more scholarly 75-page essay, "Black Reconstruction in America", where he argued that "color caste" and racism are "founded and retained by capitalism."

If race and racism are socially constructed to justify and support economic and social subjugation, then the pathway to solving problems such as police brutality, voter suppression, economic inequality, fear of demographic shifts and a host of other issues requires an entirely different mindset and navigational approach.

Let's begin with discussing one of the most significant demographic changes now underway: the prospect of whites becoming a minority in the U.S. by the middle of this century. The Census predicts that Americans who self-identify as white will make up less than half of the population by 2045. At the same time this is happening, the population of Americans who identify as people of color or of two or more races is growing rapidly. Nonwhite Hispanics will soon be a quarter of the U.S. population.

The fear by whites of becoming a minority is real and ought to be discussed and dealt with rationally. All my life I have been a minority. The worst part of it was the barriers and obstacles to success placed in my way by the dominant race. I believe we have grown in our understanding of the rights of minorities so as not to make those mistakes again.

But while people of color may collectively be in the American majority by 2045, that does not guarantee that they will control the economic and social institutions of society. Nor does it mean they will form political alliances based solely on the color of their skins.

If we somehow were able to convince more working-class and middle-class whites that their interests rest more on real economic security and access to opportunity than on race, perhaps those in power could not try to divide and conquer to the extent that they do now. Even worse, those same leaders are failing to deliver economic security for American workers of all races and classes, except for the very rich, and they often gaslight, scapegoat and blame minorities and immigrants from Mexico and Central America for the failures of the U.S. economy. Minorities do not set spending priorities, the tax code, the economic policies or the social agenda that we live under.

Those who seek to divide us seem dead-set on using wedge issues like access to voting; abortion; transgender rights; the teaching of Black studies; and whether books on race, ethnicity and gender should be banned to fire up their base of conservative white working-class voters. Sadly, too many whites who have lost ground economically under both Democratic and Republican administrations believe the racist propaganda.

As we inch closer to next year's national elections, and as announced and potential presidential candidates like former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley trot out racial tropes to divide voters, I hope the public and campaign contributors will roundly reject them. We should demand that they do. The bar needs to be raised also for mainstream and social media entities that knowingly or unknowingly normalize racism by praising governors and secretaries of state who deny Trump's big lie about a stolen election but nevertheless support a host of other racist and anti-democratic legislative actions.

Above all, religious leaders of all faiths have a moral imperative to forcefully speak out against elected officials, candidates and media pundits who use racist dog whistles to divide our nation. Too often, unfortunately, the opposite is true. Religious leaders' silence and sometimes open support for extreme right-wing candidates who appeal to racial fears is baffling and difficult to square with most religious teachings.

At the end of the day, Blacks and other minorities want from society and government the same things that whites want: economic security and opportunity, safe streets, great schools, respect and human dignity. Scientists and scholars like Du Bois have told us that race exists as only a social construct. It is time now to deconstruct race and its economic and political implications and motives to raise up the "beloved community" that Martin Luther King Jr. urged us to build more than six decades ago.

Governing's opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing's editors or management.

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The Social Construct of Race That Unnecessarily Divides Us

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We've long known that its roots aren't biological or genetic. It's time for Americans to discuss it rationally and speak out against efforts to turn us against each other.

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1. From the reading, what do you think makes the Black family unique? Please provide descriptive examples.

The historical resilience of black families throughout slavery and segregation to the current economic and social difficulties, the Black family has persevered and adjusted in the face of institutional injustice. For example, during slavery, enslaved families formed close-knit communities to help children in the event that their original parents were taken away by force.

2. What do you think are the strengths and challenges of the Black family? Please state why you think so and provide examples.

Black communities see education as a means of empowerment and social prowess. Because of this, Black educational institutions, such as HBCU's, have long been important for delivering high quality instructions as well as creating leadership for communities.

Black communities have a long history of single parent households, formed by systemic problems, economic inequality, and enslavement. Lower income and greater poverty rates are common issues for single-parent homes, especially those run by mothers. Due to salary inequalities and prejudice at work, Black women that are more likely to be primary caregivers find it harder to support their children. Also, aloung with housework, working long hours, and raising children, single parents often must balance several of other responsibilities. Due to the societal and financial demands, single parents often face stress, which can negatively affect their emotional health.

3. How do concepts such as racial socialization affect parents and children in Black families? Please explain.

Racial socialization affects black families by its effect on childrens' development of a strong sense of racial identity and a good self image. Making sure kids have the confidence and understanding needed to deal with the racial bias they will encounter. Parents may expose children to Black literature, cultural customs, and history that honor Black greatness.

4. Based on our reading, what factors do you think have impacted Black families the most since slavery and why?

Black families lives continue to be affected by economic prejudice. As many former slaves participated in sharecropping black families were forced to rely on landowners for housing, food, and supplies, this often left them trapped in cycles of poverty and debt.

“Man-in-the-House” Rule, which denied welfare to families if able bodied men were living in the household. This contributed to an increase in single parent households and weakened economic stability in Black communities​.

Black families have had constant struggles with limited access to good jobs and education. Even after segregation officially ended, Black children were still attending underfunded schools with bigger class sizes and less resources. Today a large number of Black children continue to attend schools with outdated texts, few higher-level courses, and poor preparation for college.

5. Search and find one academic resource that helps you understand this topic better and post it to your Padlet. State three main points from the resource and how it helps you understand this topic.

https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/139/4/2279/7718111

Laws that enforced racial segregation and limited economic opportunities for Black individuals, which led to enduring disparities in wealth and income.

Economic disadvantages that were brought on by Jim Crow policies have been passed down through generations, affecting current economic outcomes for Black families.

Regions with a history of Jim Crow enforcement often exhibit more significant economic disparities between Black and white populations today.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. State its significance.

One thing that stood out to me from the unit readings is the long term impact of the "man-in-the-house" rule on Black families, and how this policy denied welfare benefits to families if an able-bodied man was present in the household and how it contributed to the rise of single parent households in Black communities.

This is significant because it shows how government programs that even when designed to provide aid, they can have unintended devastating negative consequences that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

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Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress after Slavery*

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Abstract. This article studies the long-run effects of slavery and restrictive Jim Crow institutions on Black Americans’ economic outcomes. We track indivi

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https://www.aaihs.org/black-identity-and-the-power-of-self-naming/

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1. What is the Imposter Syndrome?

Imposter Syndrome is where individuals doubt their accomplishments and have a constant fear of being exposed as a "fraud," despite having evidence of their success.

2. How does the Imposter Syndrom affect a student in their educational journey AND into their career experiences?

Some students may feel like they have to prove that they belong, so they overcompensate by working excessively which causes Burnout and mental fatigue. Along with continuous self doubt which worsens academic anxiety by adding unnecessary stress to tests, presentations, and networking meetings.

After students land a job they could blame their success on luck rather than their abilities, which may make them reluctant to request increases or promotions. In an attempt to "prove" their value, they sometimes take on too much work, which can cause stress and fatigue

3. How does the Imposter Syndrome specifically affect the self-esteem and mental health of African American women in the workplace?

The pressure to maintain the "Strong Black Woman" image and the internalization of impostor syndrome can result in increased stress, anxiety, and depression. These problems might worsen if people are expected to handle these issues on their own and refrain from getting the required mental health help.

4. How do race and gender play into the African American woman's experience in the workplace?

Because of the connection of race and gender, African American women often encounter both racial and gender prejudices in the workplace. Because of this people may be disadvantaged in their industries and feel pressured to fit in with existing societal norms, this can lead to feelings of loneliness and heightened critisism.

5. State one strategy that you believe would be successful in addressing this issue and improving the workplace for women of color.

Sponsors or sponsorships that can help to ensure that women of color are considered for leadership roles and important projects.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

One thing that stood out to me from the readings is how the connection of race and gender impacts African American women in the workplace.

This is important because it showcases the needs for intentional efforts to address both racial and gender biases in professional settings.

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Racial Autobiography Outline (Kenielle Shipman-Mayhan) (1)

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7.6 Intersectionality, Bias and Microaggressions

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7.6 Intersectionality, Bias and Microaggressions

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1. What would you say are the psychological consequences of experiencing subconscious racial slights as a person of color?

The psychological consequences of experiencing subconscious racial slights are increased Stress and Anxiety, imposter syndrome and self doubt, and anger.

2. What stereotypes are perpetuated when racial microaggressions are thrown around towards a person of color?

These prejudices are intelligence stereotypes, which hold that individuals of color are not supposed to be intellectual, articulate, or well educated. People of color, especially those with non-European names or looks, are stereotyped as foreigners and are not genuinely American. The Erasure Stereotype rejects prejudice and discrimination, as your racial identity is irrelevant.

3. Considering Intersectionality, what other issues does this theme affect in the African American community?

Intersectionality affects African American low-income areas that frequently have underfunded schools, which restricts access to high-quality education. In the workplace, African Americans encounter microaggressions, being passed up for advancements/achievements, or being thought to be incompetent.

African Americans are also more likely to suffer from racial trauma, but because of stigma, distrust, and financial constraints, mental health therapies are frequently less available.

4. State how these theories of intersectionality, racial microaggressions, bias or white privilege affect one's understanding of "sense of self" or ethnic identity?

A person's ethnic identity and sense of self are greatly influenced by theories of intersectionality, racial microaggressions, racism, and white privilege, especially for persons of color. Because of this, internalized self-doubt can result from ongoing exposure to systemic racism and microaggressions.

5. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet. State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1198375/full?utm_source

This study looks at how people of color can be protected from the psychological consequences of racial microaggressions by their ethnic identification. Highlighting the importance of resilience and a strong ethnic identity in reducing suffering and providing guidance on how people might avoid and reverse the negative effects of systemic prejudices on their mental health and sense of self.

6. State a strategy that you feel can be successful to address the use of microaggressions especially when the offender is unaware of how their reactions affect people of color.

Gently educating the persona and creating a space for learning rather than defensiveness. This approach fosters awareness, accountability, and change while protecting relationships and encouraging open dialogue about bias.

7. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

One thing that stood out to me was the constant exposure to bias and microaggressions that lead to emotional exhaustion, stress, and even physical health effects, which was interesting.

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Frontiers | Ethnic identity and resilience: a moderated mediation analysis of protective factors for self-blame and racial microaggressions

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IntroductionPeople of Color (PoC) in the United States encounter everyday racial microaggressions, and these commonplace experiences can wear and exhaust PoC…

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8.2 Final Four Page Racial Autobiography Paper

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8.2 Final Four Page Racial Autobiography Paper

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Racial Autobiography Outline (Kenielle Shipman-Mayhan) (2)

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9.5 Self-Reflection SWOT Analysis of Neighborhoods and Communities

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9.5 Self-Reflection SWOT Analysis of Neighborhoods and Communities

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1. STRENGTHS: What are the strengths of Black neighborhoods and communities and how have they manifested over time?

Black communities and neighborhoods have historically been centers of activism, culture, creativity, and resilience, creating resilience that has helped them weather social and economic hardships and structural injustice. Some of their strengths include entrepreneurship demonstrated by Tulsa's Black Wall Street and Atlanta's strong Black business community today. Black-owned companies continue to promote economic empowerment.

Leaders such as Malcolm X, MLK Jr., and the Black Panther Party organized in Black neighborhoods, which were crucial to the Civil Rights Movement. Today, community activism continues to give rise to movements like Black Lives Matter, which call for structural change and justice.

Some of the most major cultural movements, such as spoken word, dance, hip-hop, jazz, blues, and hip-hop, were developed by Black communities. Global pop culture has been influenced by Black spaces' fashion, language, and style.

2. WEAKNESSES: What are the weaknesses of Black neighborhoods and communities and state one solution to an issue you have raised?

The Black community is divided by colorism and texturism, which promotes European characteristics.

Crab in a barrel mindset, where individuals in the black community feel compelled to compete rather than support one another.

Also, there is a lack of unity among the black community, which sometimes weakens collective advocacy efforts.

A solution to this problem would be to promote self-love and cultural pride by encouraging mentoring programs, media representation, and Afrocentric education, which would reinforce the value of Blackness. Another solution would be to address deep-rooted traumas through community healing spaces and accessible mental health resources to strengthen trust and solidarity. And by encouraging all aspects of the black identity, the black communities can come together to work towards greater unity and resilience.

3. OPPORTUNITIES: What are three ways in which Black neighborhoods and communities could play a role in the progressive movement of the Black community?

Promoting Black-owned businesses and the collective economy, communities can become self-sustaining, and wealth can be created for future generations.

Having more people be involved in politics and voting ensures that community voices are heard when it comes to issues that impact Black lives, such as healthcare access, school financing, and criminal justice reform.

Focusing on mentorship and educational programs that support Black kids in leadership, entrepreneurship, and STEM will help to dismantle systematic barriers and produce future activists.

4. THREATS: What are three ways in which Black neighborhoods and communities could have a detrimental effect on the progressive movement of the Black community?

Internalized racism and division, such as colorism, classism, and conflict, may threaten unity and hinder collective growth. When communities are divided by skin color, economic class, or cultural background, it becomes more difficult to organize around shared interests.

Economic challenges, such as gentrification, job discrimination, and schools that are underfunded, can trap communities in poverty cycles, making long-term change difficult to achieve. As individuals that are without access to resources may be pushed to prioritize survival above progress.

Over policing negatively impacts Black youth, limiting their educational and economic chances because mass incarceration and criminality hurt family structures and future leadership.

5. Find one resource that helps you understand these themes and post it to your Padlet. State the resources' significance to this unit's material.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/?utm_source

This article explains how government-sponsored displacement, exclusion, and segregation have intensified racial inequality in the United States. How public policies have systematically removed people of color from their homes, and how federal, state, and local policies have fortified housing discrimination.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

One thing I learned from this unit is about the effects of gentrification, urban renewal, and redlining. How it affects Black neighborhoods that were purposefully left out of opportunities to build wealth, and how many still face displacement as a result of rising property values and a lack of ownership.

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9.6 Thesis, Direction and Resources for Critical Analysis Project

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9.6 Thesis, Direction and Resources for Critical Analysis Project

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Psych 110_ Resources and Questions for Critical Analysis Project 

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1. State the most important thing that you learned from this unit's readings and how it has deepened your understanding of Black male and female interpersonal and close relationships.

The challenges that educated Black women face in the marriage market that these women face are contributed to factors such as limited availability of equally educated Black men and societal pressures. The article shows that educated black women are twice as likely to have never been married by the age of 45 compared to their white counterparts.

2. How do long-standing stereotypes in the media of African American females being portrayed as property (i.e. in rap videos etc.) affect the psyche of those seeing these images and the African American woman's dating prospects?

Rap videos depicting African American women as hypersexualized or property can have negative effects for the participants as well as the viewers. Such images might make African American women create internalized self-image and influence how they are seen in society, so affecting their dating opportunities by supporting negative preconceptions and so lowering them to just objects instead of people.

3. What factors are contributing to the rising number of single Black unmarried females?

African American women are completing higher levels of education at an increasing rate, leading to a smaller pool of similarly educated Black men, which can impact marital patterns.

Black men are more likely to marry outside their race compared to Black women, further affecting the dynamics of marriage within the Black community. (The article Noted)

Societal pressure for women to prioritize career advancement can lead to delayed marriage.

4. Why is there a stigma in the African American community against the LGBTQ community?

Stigma against the LGBTQ community from the African American community stems from historical experiences, religious beliefs, and cultural norms.

Many African American communities have strong ties to Christianity, particularly the Black church, which has historically upheld traditional views on sexuality and gender.

Historically, African Americans (particularly Black men) have faced centuries of racial oppression and as a result, have often been pressured to perform a hypermasculine identity as a response to stereotypes of weakness or inferiority.

5. Find one resource that helps you understand these themes and post it to your padlet. State the resources' significance to this unit's material.

https://lailluminator.com/2024/03/24/black-lgbtq/

This resource sheds light on intersectionality, gender identity, and sexual orientation, emphasizing the importance of creating spaces that encourage mental health and well-being within the African American community.

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1. What does it mean to code switch and how does this affect an African American's success in life?

Code-switching is when you adjust your speech, behavior, or appearance to align with the expectations of different cultural or social settings. This affects African American life by impacting mental health, creating stress, and feeling the constant need to modify Black Identity to Fit in with society's standards.

2. How does expecting code switching threaten diversity?

Code-switching threatens diversity by diminishing language and cultural differences while pressuring individuals to conform to the "dominant" cultural norms and suppress their identity. This then obstructs inclusive environments that can celebrate diverse perspectives and backgrounds.

3. How do the effects of code switching intersect with a persons' mental health?

The Effects of code-switching on mental health can intertwine in different ways, such as emotional exhaustion because of constantly monitoring your behavior to fit into different cultural norms. As well as individuals feeling disconnected to their true selves, feeling the fear of being judged based on individuals' natural speech patterns.

4. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet. State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue.

https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching

This article highlights how code-switching isn't just a harmless or strategic communication tool and how it can come with emotional, mental, and professional costs, especially for African Americans and other minorities. How people often feel pressure to change the way they speak or behave to fit into dominantly white environments, and how constant adaptation can affect their authenticity, mental health, and sense of belonging.

5. State a strategy that you feel can be successful to address the misconceptions about code switching that exist inside and outside of the African American community.

The misconceptions about code-switching would require open dialogue and having learning experiences to fully understand that AAVE is a legitimate language with rich dialect, rules, and cultural diversity. Promoting awareness about the history and social context of code-switching would help dismiss myths and encourage environments where individuals can express themselves authentically.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

The idea of the internal conflicts experienced by African Americans who navigate their identity between their own cultural heritage and the dominant white society. Understanding this concept offers a deeper look into the involvement of code-switching and the bigger social dynamics that affect African American communities.

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The behavior is necessary for advancement — but it takes a great psychological toll.

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1. What is the significance of the Yoruba Orisha faith also known as Santeria?

The pantheon of gods that makes up the Orisha faith each reflect various aspects of nature and human activity. These gods act as middlemen between people and the highest power directing followers toward earthly success and harmony. Santería combined Yoruba religious customs with Roman Catholicism to let Africans held in slavery in the Americas retain their spiritual traditions under the cover of Catholic saint adoration.

2. How does this faith provide a connection back to Africa for those African Americans choosing to join the faith?

Many African Americans, embracing the Yoruba Orisha faith offers a profound link to African cultural and spiritual roots. The tradition's close ties to African heritage provided a sense of spiritual fulfillment and cultural belonging. This reconnection serves as a means to reclaim and celebrate ancestral identities that were historically suppressed.

3. How does the Yoruba faith treat health and healing in their religion?

Health and healing are important to the Yoruba faith, with specific orishas associated with these aspects. the orisha of the Earth Babalú-Ayé is closely linked to healing and the promotion of cures for illnesses. the orisha of herbs, plants, magic, etc. Osanyin embodies the knowledge of medicinal plants and their applications.

4. Please locate a resource that helps you understand this theme. Analyze the resource and state the most important thing you learned from it about this topic.

https://www.vox.com/2020/7/31/21346686/orisha-yoruba-african-spirituality-covid?utm_source

The article explores the resurgence of African spiritual practices among Black Americans, emphasizing the role of orishas as sources of guidance and comfort. It higlights how individuals connect with specific orishas, such as Oshun, the goddess of love and fertility, and Babalú-Ayé, associated with healing.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

One interesting thing I learned was the adaptability and resilience of the Yoruba faith and how it finds new expressions and groups of people in diverse cultures. Also, the story of Wesley Hurt shows how ancient spiritual traditions can offer an important meaning and identity to individuals navigating modern life.

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Porsche Little, a Brooklyn-based artist, diviner, and aborisha - or someone who serves the Orisha, a group of spirits central to the Yoruba and other African Diaspora religions - says that she has received a huge increase in requests for divinations and readings throughout the pandemic.

"There's so much happening right now in the world to everyone, and I know for certain that all of this is happening for a reason," she says. "A lot of people are stuck in the house and can't really make sense of their lives, but that's what I'm here for."

Little says when she counsels people in her community these days, they specifically want to talk about challenges arising from this tumultuous time we're living in. Between a terrifying pandemic, a major racial reckoning, an existential crisis that climate change presents, and a government that fails to address any of these things, some Black people are turning to African and Black Diaspora traditions as a means of comfort, community, healing, and liberation.

"With the pandemic and the anxiety and the fear and all of those emotions that all of us are dealing with right now ... in the beginning my spiritual practice helped keep me connected and grounded. It helped me understand this moment in the larger context," says Akissi Britton, an assistant professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University and Lucumí priestess for 36 years.

The Black Diaspora has been through centuries of struggle, resistance, and joy since being scattered from our original homelands. And through it all, many of us have connected with those original practices - food, family structures, languages - as a way of healing and building community with each other. The same goes for African and Black Diasporic spirituality, like the Yoruba, Lucumí, and Santería traditions; many practitioners of these religions offer a different type of healing, one that is removed from traditionally Westernized versions, which generally stress individualism and independence. African traditions, instead, are reliant upon collectivism, strong communities, and healthy interdependence.

Most of these traditions revolve around Orisha (sometimes referred to as Orisa, or Òrìṣà in the Yoruba language, or Orixá in Latin America), a group of spirits from the Yoruba religion that provide guidance. Yoruba and other practitioners are often connected to one Orisha, usually called their guardian - like Oshun, the goddess of love, fertility, and success, and Babalú-Aye, Orisha of healing, including against airborne diseases that can cause epidemics. People who seek practitioners like Little are looking for guidance, which comes from rituals that invoke the Orisha, like baths or offerings and sometimes the reading of tarot cards. Sessions and ceremonies are often private and individualized.

Britton says that growing up in the Afro-Cuban Lucumí religion, which is derived from the Yoruba tradition, gave her a fulfilling sense of self. "I am not separated from my Orisa, from my ancestors, from the spirits, as well as from my community," she says. "When my sense of self is much broader and attached to other things, I don't feel so isolated. I don't feel so alone, like I'm trying to figure it out on my own."

Britton spiritually counsels others, but she encourages them to seek therapy if they can, too; Lucumí priestesses are not necessarily trained therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists. Britton has sought out therapy for herself, and says that it works well with her spiritual practice. Often in therapy, she says, "I have gotten information that my ancestors and Orisa have given to me, which is just confirmation."

Jo, a former student of Britton's and an Afro-Boricua artist and community organizer, says that the Lucumí religion offered her healing after a tumultuous relationship with both race and religion as a child. Growing up with a white mother and in the Christian church, Jo had little connection to her father's Puerto Rican family. Still, she was always drawn to the beauty of the complex cultural practices in the Boricua community.

Early in her life, Jo says, she didn't receive much affection from the people who were "supposed to love" her, and instead she experienced a lot of pain. She completely rejected Christianity and religion altogether, until she found strength and healing in Lucumí. Although she didn't come to Lucumí until adulthood, she feels much of it has always been with her.

"In some weird way, I always felt protected," she says. "My angels and ancestors have always been the ones to bring me that feeling. As an adult, I was led right back to the same innate practices I believed in when I was young. I reconnected with the voices and knowings I had turned away from for so long. And it changed my life."

The liberation in connecting with African spirituality

For practitioners of African spirituality, healing often comes in the form of liberation and resistance. These traditions are made even more pressing considering the centuries-long attempts by European slave owners, colonists, and neo-colonists to suppress and demonize these religions. And now, in a time when America's racist foundation has been pushed to the foreground, seeking solace in this connection feels especially poignant.

During slavery, Christianity was used to justify the horrific practice. As such, the enslaved were often forbidden from practicing their indigenous religions, and other religions like Islam. Even in places like Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, and Trinidad, European colonists and slave masters attempted to obliterate the humanity and autonomy of enslaved Africans, Britton says. Many in the Black Diaspora embraced Christianity, finding a different sort of liberation in a religion meant to oppress them - a radical tradition that continues today, especially in the African American Episcopal Church (AME).

However, as a form of resistance, other enslaved Africans syncretized their indigenous religions with Christianity, creating traditions like Santería, Vodun, and Hoodoo. For instance, the word Santería means "honor to saints," and the religion is infused with the Spanish Catholicism that was indoctrinated into enslaved Africans early on. In fact, some practitioners correspond Orishas with Catholic saints - Eleguá, associated with roads and paths, corresponds with Saint Anthony, the patron saint of travelers and lost things - while others believed in removing the Catholic component altogether, as they saw the European influences as antithetical to goals of decolonization and autonomy.

But syncretizing practices wasn't a matter of happenstance. "[Africans'] ingenuity, their creativity, their brilliance allowed them to maintain certain practices from home while masking them in the practices that Europeans insisted upon," Britton says. Santería was "the masking behind the saints ... that in itself is a liberation practice," she says.

Britton points out that the Haitian Revolution - the only successful slave revolt and an event that led to the creation of the first free Black republic - while not specifically Lucumí, was "the coming together of Africans, different ethnic groups too, that had a ceremony that inspired and gave strength for the revolution that made it."

"Africans and their descendants [have] refused to allow Europeans slave masters and colonialists to dictate their full humanity," Britton says. "This gave them a very strong sense of identity, inspiration, spiritual grounding that was liberatory in the sense that it allowed them to think differently and understand themselves differently than the dominant models do."

Little, who is studying Ifá and Lucumí traditions, says honoring Orisha and her ancestors helps her connect with her past before enslavement and colonization. She has been following the path to become an initiated priestess, which is mostly focused on immersing oneself in community as they guide you, something that can feel like coming home for so many Black people. "I spent a lot of my life wondering who I was, and where I came from, but now I don't question that. It has truly reconnected me with not only my roots but with people that I've known from past lives," she says. "There's a certain power that comes with remembering where you came from."

Because of the oppression people in the Black Diaspora faced, however, stigma against African spirituality exists today. The Roman Catholic Church has often viewed these practices as akin to demon worship. I know in my own family, some people see these practices as evil or dangerous. Others embrace it.

Little says that we should interrogate those ingrained beliefs and where they come from, particularly relating to Christianity and other religions closely related to "conquest, murder, homophobia, sexism, and slavery amongst so many other forms of violence." For Little, it's worth questioning why some in the diaspora have been taught that African religion, which she says "connects you with your personal power, identity and lineage," is evil. She suggests that "people need to decolonize their own minds and then see what serves them best."

Ruqaiyyah Beatty, who grew up practicing Christianity, Islam, and other other African religions, is a now practitioner of Ifá, a Yoruba religion and system of divination. She says that through her practice, she was able to find healing through connection. "I was able to connect to Nigeria, it gave me a global network of spirituality, divine guidance, family, and love, and I was able to create and sustain a great relationship to god," she says.

For those looking to get involved with African spiritual traditions, Britton stresses that research is key. She suggests reading books by independent scholar John Mason, who wrote Black Gods - Orisa Studies in the New World, which discusses 13 Orisha, including their symbols, personal characteristics, philosophical values, animal familiars, and feast days.

She also says it's important to enter these spaces from a place of respect, seeking mentorship and accountability, and above all, community. "You cannot do this by yourself," she stresses. The best way to guard against misinformation, Britton says, is to go slow, research, and talk to people.

While African spirituality can keep us connected during a time that can feel especially isolating, Little says, it can also keep us empowered. "I just want people to know that although there is a higher power, remember that you have power as well. I want us all collectively to start using our intuitions ... and to question everything."

Nylah Burton is a Denver-based writer. She covers mental health, social justice, and identity. You can follow her on .

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How some Black Americans are finding solace in African spirituality

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Between the pandemic and protests, Black Americans are welcoming the community and liberation that African spirituality and traditions can bring.

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Kenielle Shipman-Mayhan Psych 110 Spring 2025 Google Slide 

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1. After reading this Washington Post article, can you explain why there are disparities between the amount of pain medication an African American woman would receive compared to other women in the same hospital complaining of pain?

The article highlights the racial bias that the medical field contributes to this disparity. The article shows that Black patients are more likely to have their pain discounted or ignored compared to white patients. A 2016 University of Virginia study revealed that some white medical students and residents had false beliefs about biological differences, such as the idea that Black people feel less pain than white people. Even a globally known athlete, Serena Williams was dismissed by hospital staff when reporting symptoms of a pulmonary embolism.

2. What factors are contributing to the disproportionate number of African American infants who die in childbirth and African American mothers who die in childbirth?

Some of the factors that contribute to the disproportionate number of African American infants who are toxic stress and weathering on African American women, Toxic stress refers to the chronic stress experienced due to various forms of racial discrimination and social inequities. This ongoing stress response physically affects the body, leading to elevated risks during pregnancy and often resulting in complications such as hypertension and preeclampsia. Weathering describes how this chronic stress prematurely ages individuals physically, leaving them more liable to health complications by the time they reach pregnancy and childbirth. Finally, Black women receive subpar care compared to their white counterparts. This systemic discrimination displays itself in the form of inadequate treatment responses, misdiagnoses, and underestimations of pain, leading to dangerous complications during labor and delivery.

3. What are some solutions that can be implemented to improve the experiences of African American mothers giving birth and African American infant survival rates?

To improve outcomes for African American mothers and infants, many solutions require the extensive addressing of systemic inequalities and the deep-rooted biases within the healthcare system.

Enhancing access to healthcare: Many African American women live in regions with limited healthcare services. Expanding services like Medicaid would provide more women with essential prenatal and postnatal care, significantly reducing risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth.

Addressing reproductive health's educational flaws: Creating extensive sex education that covers not just abstinence but also contraception and prenatal care options that can empower women to make well-informed choices about their reproductive health and well-being.

Medical professionals confront unconscious biases along with promoting awareness about “toxic stress” and its effects on health

4. Find one resource that helps you understand this theme and post it to your Padlet. State the resources' significance to this unit's material.

https://www.propublica.org/article/nothing-protects-black-women-from-dying-in-pregnancy-and-childbirth

This article expands on what was discussed in the Washington Post piece as it goes into real-life stories and data showing that Black women face systemic neglect in maternal care, regardless of socioeconomic status. It highlights that the problem is structural, and not individual, it adds depth to our understanding of racial disparities in health outcomes.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

One thing I learned was how education and wealth don’t protect Black women from racism in healthcare. After learning that even Beyoncé and Serena Williams had traumatic birth experiences it shows how deeply rooted these disparities are. That it’s not just about access; it’s about how the system sees and treats Black women.

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On a melancholy Saturday this past February, Shalon Irving's "village" - the friends and family she had assembled to support her as a single mother - gathered at a funeral home in a prosperous black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta to say goodbye and send her home. The afternoon light was gray but bright, flooding through tall arched windows and pouring past white columns, illuminating the flag that covered her casket. Sprays of callas and roses dotted the room like giant corsages, flanking photos from happier times: Shalon in a slinky maternity dress, sprawled across her couch with her puppy; Shalon, sleepy-eyed and cradling the tiny head of her newborn daughter, Soleil. In one portrait Shalon wore a vibrant smile and the crisp uniform of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, where she had been a lieutenant commander. Many of the mourners were similarly attired. Shalon's father, Samuel, surveyed the rows of somber faces from the lectern. "I've never been in a room with so many doctors," he marveled. "... I've never seen so many Ph.D.s."

At 36, Shalon had been part of their elite ranks - an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the preeminent public health institution in the U.S. There she had focused on trying to understand how structural inequality, trauma and violence made people sick. "She wanted to expose how peoples' limited health options were leading to poor health outcomes. To kind of uncover and undo the victim blaming that sometimes happens where it's like, 'Poor people don't care about their health,'" said Rashid Njai, her mentor at the agency. Her Twitter bio declared: "I see inequity wherever it exists, call it by name, and work to eliminate it."

Much of Shalon's research had focused on how childhood experiences affect health over a lifetime. Her discovery in mid-2016 that she was pregnant with her first child had been unexpected and thrilling.

Then the unthinkable had happened. Three weeks after giving birth, Shalon had collapsed and died.

The sadness in the chapel was crushing. Shalon's long-divorced parents had already buried both their sons; she had been their last remaining child. Wanda Irving had been especially close to her daughter -role model, traveling companion, emotional touchstone. She sat in the front row in a black suit and veiled hat, her face a portrait of unfathomable grief. Sometimes she held Soleil, fussing with her pink blanket. Sometimes Samuel held her, or one of Shalon's friends.

A few of Shalon's villagers rose to pay tribute; others sat quietly, poring through their funeral programs. Daniel Sellers, Shalon's cousin from Ohio and the baby's godfather, spoke for all of them when he promised Wanda that she would not have to raise her only grandchild alone. "People say to me, 'She won't know her mother.' That's not true," Sellers said. "Her mother is in each and every one of you, each and every one of us. ... This child is a gift to us. When you remember this child, you remember the love that God has pushed down through her for all of us. Soleil is our gift."

Underneath the numb despair was a profound sense of failure - and an acute understanding of what Shalon's death represented. The researcher working to eradicate disparities in health access and outcomes had become a symbol of one of the most troublesome health disparities facing black women in the U.S. today, disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality. The main federal agency seeking to understand why so many American women - especially black women - die and nearly die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth had lost one of its own. Even Shalon's many advantages - her B.A. in sociology, her two master's degrees and dual-subject Ph.D., her gold-plated insurance and rock-solid support system - had not been enough to ensure her survival. If a village this powerful hadn't been able to protect her, was any black woman safe?

The memorial service drew to a close, the bugle strains of "Taps" as plaintive as a howl. Two members of the U.S. Honor Guard removed the flag from Shalon's coffin and held it aloft. Then they folded it into a precise triangle small enough for Wanda and Samuel to hold next to their hearts.

In recent years, as high rates of maternal mortality in the U.S. have alarmed researchers, one statistic has been especially concerning. According to the CDC, black mothers in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of white mothers, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health. Put another way, a black woman is 22 percent more likely to die from heart disease than a white woman, 71 percent more likely to perish from cervical cancer, but 243 percent more likely to die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related causes. In a national study of five medical complications that are common causes of maternal death and injury, black women were two to three times more likely to die than white women who had the same condition.

That imbalance has persisted for decades, and in some places, it continues to grow. In New York City, for example, black mothers are 12 times more likely to die than white mothers, according to the most recent data; from 2001 to 2005, their risk of death was seven times higher. Researchers say that widening gap reflects a dramatic improvement for white women but not for blacks.

The disproportionate toll on African Americans is the main reason the U.S. maternal mortality rate is so much higher than that of other affluent countries. Black expectant and new mothers in the U.S. die at about the same rate as women in countries such as Mexico and Uzbekistan, the World Health Organization estimates.

What's more, even relatively well-off black women like Shalon Irving die or nearly die at higher rates than whites. Again, New York City offers a startling example: A 2016 analysis of five years of data found that black college-educated mothers who gave birth in local hospitals were more likely to suffer severe complications of pregnancy or childbirth than white women who never graduated from high school.

The fact that someone with Shalon's social and economic advantages is at higher risk highlights how profound the inequities really are, said Raegan McDonald-Mosley, the chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who met her in graduate school at Johns Hopkins University and was one of her closest friends. "It tells you that you can't educate your way out of this problem. You can't health-care-access your way out of this problem. There's something inherently wrong with the system that's not valuing the lives of black women equally to white women."

For much of American history, these types of disparities were largely blamed on blacks' supposed innate susceptibility to illness - their "mass of imperfections," as one doctor wrote in 1903 - and their own behavior. But now many social scientists and medical researchers agree, the problem isn't race but racism.

The systemic problems start with the type of social inequities that Shalon studied - differential access to healthy food and clean drinking water, safe neighborhoods and good schools, decent jobs and reliable transportation. Black women are more likely to be uninsured outside of pregnancy, when Medicaid kicks in, and thus more likely to start prenatal care later and to lose coverage in the postpartum period. They are more likely to have chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension that make having a baby more dangerous. The hospitals where they give birth are often the products of historical segregation, lower in quality than those where white mothers deliver, with significantly higher rates of life-threatening complications.

Those problems are amplified by unconscious biases that are embedded throughout the medical system, affecting quality of care in stark and subtle ways. In the more than 200 stories of African-American mothers that ProPublica and NPR have collected over the past year, the feeling of being devalued and disrespected by medical providers was a constant theme. The young Florida mother-to-be whose breathing problems were blamed on obesity when in fact her lungs were filling with fluid and her heart was failing. The Arizona mother whose anesthesiologist assumed she smoked marijuana because of the way she did her hair. The Chicago-area businesswoman with a high-risk pregnancy who was so upset at her doctor's attitude that she changed OB-GYNs in her seventh month, only to suffer a fatal postpartum stroke.

Over and over, black women told of medical providers who equated being African American with being poor, uneducated, noncompliant and unworthy. "Sometimes you just know in your bones when someone feels contempt for you based on your race," said one Brooklyn woman who took to bringing her white husband or in-laws to every prenatal visit.

Hakima Tafunzi Payne, a mother of nine in Kansas City, Missouri, who used to be a labor-and-delivery nurse and still attends births as a student midwife, has seen this cultural divide as both patient and caregiver. "The nursing culture is white, middle-class, and female, so is largely built around that identity. Anything that doesn't fit that identity is suspect," she said. Payne, who is also a nurse educator lecturing on unconscious bias for professional organizations, recalled "the conversations that took place behind the nurse's station that just made assumptions - a lot of victim blaming, 'If those people would only do blah, blah, blah, things would be different.'"

Black expectant and new mothers frequently told us that doctors and nurses didn't take their pain seriously - a phenomenon borne out by numerous studies that show pain is often undertreated in black patients for conditions from appendicitis to cancer. When Patrisse Cullors, a cofounder of the Black Lives Matters movement who has become an activist to improve black maternal care, had an emergency C-section in Los Angeles in March 2016, the surgeon "never explained what he was doing to me," she said. The pain medication didn't work: "My mother basically had to scream at the doctors to give me the proper pain meds." When white people advocate for themselves or their family members, she said, providers "think they're acting reasonably. When black people are advocating for our family members, we're complaining, we're being uppity, we don't know what we're talking about, we're exaggerating."

Limited diversity in the medical profession contributes to the black mothers' sense of alienation. Blacks make up 6 percent of doctors (though 11 percent of OB-GYNs), 3 percent of medical school faculty and less than 2 percent of National Institutes of Health-funded principal investigators. "That's a real problem that across the spectrum that [black women] are not feeling listened to and respected-that's a structural problem," said Monica McLemore, a nursing professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who has conducted focus groups with dozens of mothers as part of a $50 million initiative to reduce preterm births. "The health sector doesn't want to admit how much of this is about us."

But it's the discrimination that black women experience in the rest of their lives - the double-whammy of race and gender - that may ultimately be the most significant factor in poor maternal outcomes. An expanding field of research shows that the stress of being a black woman in American society can take a significant physical toll during pregnancy and childbirth.

Watch the Video

The U.S. medical system is still haunted by slavery.

"It's chronic stress that just happens all the time - there is never a period where there's rest from it, it's everywhere, it's in the air, it's just affecting everything," said Fleda Mask Jackson, an Atlanta researcher and member of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance who studies disparities in birth outcomes.

It's a type of stress from which education and class provide no protection. "When you interview these doctors and lawyers and business executives, when you interview African-American college graduates, it's not like their lives have been a walk in the park," said Michael Lu, a longtime disparities researcher and former head of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the main federal agency funding programs for mothers and infants. "It's the experience of having to work harder than anybody else just to get equal pay and equal respect. It's being followed around when you're shopping at a nice store, or being stopped by the police when you're driving in a nice neighborhood."

Arline Geronimus, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, coined the term "weathering" for how this continuous stress wears away at the body. Weathering "causes a lot of different health vulnerabilities and increases susceptibility to infection," she said, "but also early onset of chronic diseases, in particular, hypertension and diabetes" - conditions that disproportionately affect blacks at much younger ages than whites. It accelerates aging at the cellular level; in a 2010 study, Geronimus and colleagues found that the telomeres (chromosomal markers of aging) of black women in their 40s and 50s appeared 7 1/2 years older on average than those of whites.

Weathering can have particularly serious repercussions in pregnancy and childbirth, the most physiologically complex time in a woman's life. Stress has been linked to one of the most common and consequential pregnancy complications, preterm birth. Black women are 49 percent more likely than whites to deliver prematurely (and, closely related, black infants are twice as likely as white babies to die before their first birthday). Here again, income and education aren't protective.

The effects on the mother's health may also be far-reaching. Maternal age is an important risk factor for many severe pregnancy-related complications, as well as for chronic diseases that can affect pregnancy, like hypertension. "As women get older, birth outcomes get worse," Lu said. "If that happens in the 40s for white women, it actually starts to happen for African-American women in their 30s."

This means that for black women, the risks for pregnancy likely start at an earlier age than many clinicians - and women- realize, and the effects on their bodies may be much greater than for white women. This doesn't mean that pregnancy should be thought of as inherently scary or dangerous for black women (or anyone). It does mean, in Geronimus' view, that "a black woman of any social class, as early as her mid-20s, should be attended to differently" - with greater awareness of the potential challenges ahead.

That's a paradigm shift that professional organizations and providers have barely begun to wrap their heads around. "There may be individual doctors or hospitals that are doing it [accounting for the higher risk of black women], but ... there's not much of that going on," Lu said. Should doctors and clinicians be taking into consideration this added layer of vulnerability?

"Yeah," Lu said. "I truly think they should."

Shalon Irving's history is almost a textbook example of the kinds of strains and stresses that make high-achieving black women vulnerable. The child of two Dartmouth graduates, she grew up in Portland, Oregon, where her father's father was pastor of a black church. Even in its current liberal incarnation, Portland is one of the whitest large cities in the U.S.

Thirty years ago, Portland was a much more uncomfortable place to be black. African-American life there was often characterized by social isolation, which Geronimus' research suggests can be especially stressful. Samuel Irving spent years working as a railroad engineer; he got a law degree and later ran a city agency, but felt his prospects were still constrained by his race. Wanda held various jobs in marketing and communications, including at the U.S. Forest Service. In elementary school, Shalon was sometimes the only African-American kid in her class. "There were many mornings where she would stand outside banging on the door wanting to come back into the house because she didn't want to go to school," her mother recently recalled.

Shalon's strategy for fitting in was to be smarter than everyone else. She read voraciously, wrote a column for a black-owned weekly newspaper and skipped a grade. Books and writing helped her cope with trauma and sorrow - first the death of her 20-month-old brother Simone in a car accident when she was six, then the fracturing of her parents' marriage, then the diagnosis of her beloved older brother, Sam III, with a virulent form of early-onset multiple sclerosis when he was 17. Amid all the family troubles, Shalon was funny and driven, with a fierce sense of loyalty and "a moral compass that was amazing," her mother said. She was also overweight and often anxious, given to daydreaming (as she later put it) about "alternative realities where people hadn't died and things had not been lost." When it came time to go away to college, she chose the historically black Hampton University in Virginia. "She wanted to feel that nurturing environment," Wanda said. "She had had enough."

By then, Shalon had noticed that many of her relatives - her mother's mother, her aunts, her far-flung cousins - died in their 30s and 40s. Her brother, Sam III, sardonically joked that the family had a "death gene," but Shalon didn't think that was funny. "She didn't understand why there was such a disparity with other families that had all these long lives," Wanda said. Shalon nagged her father to stop smoking and her mother to lose weight. She set an example, shedding nearly 100 pounds while managing to graduate summa cum laude. At the start of graduate school at Purdue University, she was a svelte 138 pounds, "very classy and elegant, a lot like her mom," said Bianca Pryor, a master's student in consumer behavior who became one of what Shalon called her cherished circle of "sister friends."

They were all bearing the same burden. "There's this feeling that we're carrying the expectations of generations, the first ones trying to climb the corporate ladder, trying to climb in academe," said Pryor, now a marketing executive in New York City. "There is this idea that we have to work twice as hard as everyone else. But there's also, 'I'm first-generation, I don't know the ropes, I don't how to use my social capital.' There's a bit of shame in that ... this constant checking in with yourself - am I doing this right?"

Shalon set the bar especially high: She was pursuing a double Ph.D. in sociology and gerontology, focusing on themes she would return to often - the long-term effects of early childhood trauma and maltreatment, the impact of the parent-child relationship on lifelong health. She finished in under five years, once again with top honors - "one of the best writers I've had in my academic career," her adviser, sociologist Kenneth Ferraro, said.

She tried teaching, then decided to pursue a second master's degree, this time from Johns Hopkins. She was also juggling family responsibilities. Wanda had followed Shalon around the country, earning her own master's degree and working in nonprofit management. "They were like the 'Gilmore Girls,'" Pryor said. In 2008, Sam III joined them in Baltimore to take part in a study on an experimental MS therapy. With his family's support, he'd managed to finish college and run a poetry-slam nonprofit for kids. His next goal was to walk across the stage to receive his diploma instead of using his wheelchair. In February 2009, while he was doing physical rehab to regain strength in his legs, a blood clot traveled to his lung, killing him at the age of 32. Afterward, Wanda and Shalon clung to each other more tightly than ever.

In 2011 came what Ferraro called Shalon's "change-the-world opportunity" - a consulting gig at the CDC with Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" initiative. Soon she joined the agency's prestigious Epidemic Intelligence Service, a training program in applied epidemiology - in her case, with a focus on community health - whose members served as first responders in health emergencies. As part of the uniformed ranks of the U.S. Public Health Service, she could eventually discharge her student debt - more than $165,000 for Hopkins alone - travel, buy a house. "The permanence was very appealing," Pryor said.

What Shalon wasn't prepared for was how unfulfilled she was. After Johns Hopkins, she had worked on the frontlines helping at-risk infants, teenage girls and mothers with HIV/AIDS. She was passionate about improving food and housing security to reduce people's risk for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, but felt like much of her CDC research ended up sitting on a shelf. It bothered her that she rarely met the people behind the data she was analyzing. "She might see the numbers, but I don't think she actually saw that little girl or little boy have a healthier lunch," Pryor said.

The stress and frustration triggered the old corrosive self-doubts. But gradually, Shalon saw a way out of the box. She joined the CDC's Division of Violence Prevention, refocusing on issues around trauma and domestic abuse- a mission she saw as "liberating" for African-American women, Wanda said. She started a coaching business called Inclusivity Standard to advise young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who wanted to get into college or grad school, as well as organizations seeking to become more diverse. She enlisted her mother, now working as a consultant, and Pryor to join her team. And she decided to write a self-help book, on the theory that many people in the communities she cared about couldn't afford psychotherapy or didn't trust it. "She was one of those people - one thing is just not enough," said her coauthor Habiba Tran, a therapist and life coach with a multicultural clientele. "One modality is just not enough. One way of [reaching people] is just not enough."

Shalon couldn't remember a time when she didn't want to be a mother. But her romantic life had been a "20-year dating debacle," she admitted in the manuscript of her self-help book, in part because "I am deathly scared of heartbreak and disappointment, and letting people in comes with the very real risk of both."

In 2014, when Shalon was 34, medical problems forced the issue. For years she'd been suffering from uterine fibroids - non-malignant tumors that affect up to 80 percent of black women, leading to heavy menstrual bleeding, anemia and pelvic pain. No one knows what causes fibroids or why blacks are so susceptible. What is known is that the tumors can interfere with fertility - indeed, black women are nearly twice as likely to have infertility problems as whites, and when they undergo treatment, there's much less likelihood that the treatments will succeed. Surgery bought her a little time, but her OB-GYN urged her not to delay getting pregnant much longer.

Shalon had spent her adult years defying stereotypes about black women; now she wrestled with the reality that by embracing single motherhood, she could become one. The financial risk was substantial - she'd just purchased a town house in the quiet Sandy Springs area north of Atlanta, and her CDC insurance only covered artificial insemination for wives using their husbands' sperm. In Portland, no one would have blinked an eye at an unmarried professional woman having a child on her own, but in Atlanta, "there is very much a vibe there that things should happen in a certain order," Pryor said. "And Shalon was not having that at all. She was like, 'Nope, this is what it is.'"

The gamble - funded with her parents' help - ended in a series of devastating failures. In September 2015, in the midst of one unsuccessful insemination treatment, Shalon was alarmed to discover that her right arm had become swollen and hard. Doctors found a blood clot and diagnosed her with Factor V Leiden, a genetic mutation that makes blood prone to abnormal clumping. Suddenly a part of the family's medical mystery was solved. Wanda's mother had died of a pulmonary embolism, so had Sam III, so had other members of their extended family. But no one had been tested for the mutation, which is primarily associated with European ancestry. Had they known they carried it, maybe Sam's deadly blood clot could have been prevented. It was a what-if too painful to dwell on.

By April 2016, Shalon had given up. She had a new boyfriend and she was on her way to Puerto Rico to help with the CDC'S Zika response, working to prevent the spread of the virus to expectant mothers and their unborn babies. There she discovered she'd gotten pregnant by accident. Her excitement was tempered by fear that the baby might have contracted Zika, which can cause microcephaly and other birth defects. But a barrage of medical tests confirmed all was well.

More good news: A few weeks later Pryor learned she was pregnant, too. "All right," she told Shalon, "let's finally go after our rainbows and unicorns! Because for so long it was just dark clouds and rain."

In reality, Shalon's many risk factors - including her clotting disorder, her fibroid surgery, the 36 years of wear and tear on her telomeres, her weight - boded a challenging nine months. She also had a history of high blood pressure, though it was now under control without medication. "If I was the doctor taking care of her, I'd be like, 'Oh, this is going to be a tough one,'" her OB-GYN friend Raegan McDonald-Mosley said.

Shalon got though the physical challenges surprisingly well. Her team at Emory University, one of the premier health systems in the South, had no trouble managing her clotting disorder with the blood thinner Lovenox. They worried that scarring from the fibroid surgery could result in a rupture if her uterus stretched too much, so they scheduled a C-section at 37 weeks. At several points, Shalon's blood pressure did spike, Wanda said, but doctors ruled out preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension) and the numbers always fell back to normal.

Wanda blamed stress. There was the painful end to Shalon's romance with her baby's father and her dashed hopes of raising their child together. There were worries about money and panic attacks about the difficulties of being a black single mother in the South in the era of Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice. Shalon told everyone she was hoping for a girl.

Steeped in research about how social support could buffer against stress and adversity, Shalon joined online groups for single moms and assembled a stalwart community she could quickly deploy for help. "She was all about the village," Rashid Njai said. "She'd say, 'I'm making sure that when I have my baby, the village is activated and ready to go.'"

She poured more of her anxious energy into finishing the first draft of the book. She sent Tran the manuscript on Jan. 2, the day before the planned C-section, then typed one last note to her child. Boy or girl, its nickname would be Sunny, in honor of her brother Sam, her "sunshine."

"You will always be my most important accomplishment," she wrote. "No words have been created to adequately capture the fear and love and excitement that I feel right now."

Until recently, much of the discussion about maternal mortality has focused on pregnancy and childbirth. But according to the most recent CDC data, more than half of maternal deaths occur in the postpartum period, and one-third happen seven or more days after delivery. For American women in general, postpartum care can be dangerously inadequate - often no more than a single appointment four to six weeks after going home. "If you've had a cesarean delivery, if you've had preeclampsia, if you've had gestational diabetes or diabetes, if you go home on an anticoagulant - all those women need to be seen significantly sooner than six weeks," said Haywood Brown, a professor at Duke University medical school. Brown has made reforming postpartum care one of his main initiatives as president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The dangers of sporadic postpartum care may be particularly great for black mothers. African Americans have higher rates of C-section and are more than twice as likely to be readmitted to the hospital in the month following the surgery. They have disproportionate rates of preeclampsia and peripartum cardiomyopathy (a type of heart failure), two leading killers in the days and weeks after delivery. They're twice as likely as white women to have postpartum depression, which contributes to poor outcomes, but they are much less likely to receive mental health treatment. If they experience discrimination or disrespect during pregnancy or childbirth, they may be more likely to skip postpartum visits to check on their own health (they do keep pediatrician appointments for their babies). Lack of paid maternity leave and childcare can create additional hurdles. In one study published earlier this year, two-thirds of low-income black women never made it to their doctor visit.

Meanwhile, many providers wrongly assume that the risks end when the baby is born - and that women who came through pregnancy and delivery without problems will stay healthy. In the case of black women, providers may not understand their true biological risks or evaluate those risks in a big-picture way. "The maternal experience isn't over right at delivery. All of the due diligence that gets applied during the prenatal period needs to continue into the postpartum period," said Eleni Tsigas, executive director of the Preeclampsia Foundation.

It's not just doctors and nurses who need to think differently. Like a lot of expectant mothers, Shalon had an elaborate plan for how she wanted to give birth, even including what she wanted her surgical team to talk about (nothing political) and who would announce the baby's gender (her mother, not a doctor or nurse). But like most pregnant women, she didn't have a postpartum care plan for herself. "It was just trusting in the system that things were gonna go okay," Wanda said. "And that if something came up, she'd be able to handle it."

The birth was "a beautiful time," Wanda said. Shalon did so well that she convinced her doctor to let her and Soleil - French for "sun" - leave the hospital after two nights (three or four nights are more typical). Then at home, "things got real," Pryor said. "It was Shalon and her mom trying to figure things out, and the late nights, and trying to get baby on schedule. Shalon was very honest. She told me, 'Friend, this is hard.'"

C-sections have much higher complication rates than vaginal births. In Shalon's case, the trouble - a painful lump on her incision - emerged a few days after she went home. The first doctor she saw, on Jan. 12, said it was nothing, but as she and her mother were leaving his office, they ran into her longtime OB-GYN, Elizabeth Collins. Collins took a look and diagnosed a hematoma - blood trapped in layers of healing skin, something that happens in about 1 percent of C-sections. The OB-GYN drained the "fluctuant mass" (as her notes described it), and "copious bloody non-purulent material" poured out from the one-inch incision. Collins also arranged for a visiting nurse to come by the house every other day to change the dressing. Collins didn't respond to a request for comment.

Over the next two weeks, Shalon's records show three more visits to Emory and two nursing visits at home. She feared that the incision wasn't healing fast enough, perhaps because the blood thinners she was taking to prevent an embolism -another C-section risk - were hampering coagulation. But a wound specialist said everything looked OK. Shalon was worried about Soleil, too: Breastfeeding was harder than expected, and she'd stopped taking narcotic painkillers because she thought they were making the baby groggy. But less powerful painkillers weren't working; between the pain and the anxiety, she was hardly sleeping. "Patient has poor endurance," the visiting nurse noted on Jan. 16. "Leaving the home is a TAXING and CONSIDERABLE effort."

What troubled the nurse most, though, was Shalon's blood pressure. On Jan. 16 it was 158/100, high enough to raise concerns about postpartum preeclampsia, which can lead to seizures and stroke. But Shalon didn't have other symptoms, such as headache or blurred vision. She made an appointment to see the OB-GYN for the next day, then ended up being too overwhelmed to go, the visiting nurse noted on Jan. 18. In that same record, the nurse wrote that Shalon had to change the dressing on her wound "sometimes several times a day due to large amounts of red drainage. This is adding to her stress as a new mom." Her pain was 5 on a scale of 10, preventing her from "sleeping/relaxing." Overall, Shalon told the nurse, "it just doesn't feel right." When the nurse measured her blood pressure on the cuff Shalon kept at home, the reading was 158/112. On the nurse's equipment, the reading was 174/118.

"We provide caring and compassionate care to all of our patients," the Visiting Nurse Health System said in an email. "She was in our care for less than four days but we gave the very best care we could."

Under current ACOG guidelines, blood pressure readings that high should trigger more aggressive action, such as an immediate trip to the doctor for further evaluation, possibly medication and more careful monitoring. A history of hypertension and multiple other risks should raise more red flags, Tsigas said. "We need to look holistically at the risk factors irrespective of whether or not she had a diagnosis of preeclampsia," she said. "If somebody has a whole plateful of risk factors, how are you treating them differently?" High blood pressure in the postpartum period should always be considered an emergency, she said.

"It would have made sense to admit her to the hospital for a complete work-up, including chest xray, an echocardiogram to evaluate for heart failure, and titration of her medication (both pain meds and hypertension meds) to sort out what she needed to feel OK and get [her] blood pressure out of the severe range," wrote one doctor, a leading expert on postpartum care, who agreed to look at Shalon's records at ProPublica's request, but asked not to be identified. "Education on signs / symptoms of stroke seems insufficient - we don't want to wait until someone is having a stroke to get their BP treated. A next-day follow-up for a BP of 174/118 seems questionable for a postpartum woman. Same-day assessment in her provider's office, or in the ER, would have been very much within the bounds of common practice."

Instead, Shalon was given an appointment for the following day, Jan. 19, with an OB-GYN at Women's Center at Emory St. Joseph's, which handled her primary care. By then, Shalon's blood pressure had fallen, and there were "no symptoms concerning for postpartum [preeclampsia]," the doctor wrote in his notes. He wrote that Shalon was healing "appropriately" and thought her jumps in blood pressure were likely related to "poor pain control." Wanda and Shalon left feeling more frustrated than ever.

At home over the next couple of days, Wanda noticed that one of Shalon's legs was larger than the other. "She said, 'Yeah, I know, Mom, and my knee hurts, I can't bend it."

When McDonald-Mosley looked over the voluminous medical records a few months later, what jumped out at her was the sense that Shalon's caregivers didn't seem to think of her as a patient who needed a heightened level of attention, despite the complexity of her pregnancy.

"She had all these risk factors. If you're gonna pick someone who's going to have a problem, it's gonna be her. ... She needs to be treated with caution." The fact that her symptoms defied easy categorization was all the more reason to be vigilant, McDonald-Mosley said. "There were all these opportunities to identify that something was going wrong. To act on them sooner and they were missed. At multiple levels. At multiple parts of the health care system. They were missed."

Shalon's other friends were growing uneasy, too. Back in New York, Bianca Pryor had her own pregnancy emergency - her son was born very prematurely, at 24 weeks - so she couldn't be in Atlanta. But she and Shalon talked often by phone. "She knew so much about her body one would think she was an M.D. and not a Ph.D. To hear her be concerned about her legs - that worried me." Pryor encouraged her, "'Friend, are you getting out of the house? Are you going for your walks? She told me, 'No, I'm on my chaise lounge, and that's about as much as I can do.'"

Habiba Tran was so upset at Shalon's condition that she took her frustrations out on her friend. "I was cussing her out. 'Go to the f- ing doctor.' She's like, 'I called them. I talked to them. I went to see them. Get off my back.'"

On the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 24, Shalon took a selfie with her father, who'd been visiting for a week, then sent him to the airport to catch a flight back to Portland. Towards noon, she and Wanda and the baby drove to the Emory Women's Center one more time. This time, Shalon saw a nurse practitioner. "We said, 'Look, there's something wrong here, she's not feeling well,'" Wanda recalled. "'One leg is larger than the other, she's still gaining weight'- nine pounds in 10 days - 'the blood pressure is still up, there's gotta be something wrong."

The nurse's records confirmed Shalon had swelling in both legs, with more swelling in the right one. She noted that Shalon had complained of "some mild headaches" and her blood pressure was back up to 163/99, but she didn't have other preeclampsia signs, like blurred vision. She checked the incision - "warm dry no [sign/symptom] of infection" - and noted Shalon's mental state ("cooperative, appropriate mood & affect, normal judgment"). She ordered an ultrasound to check the legs for blood clots, as well as preeclampsia screening.

Both tests came back negative. As Wanda remembers it, Shalon was insistent: "There is something wrong, I know my body. I don't feel well, my legs are swollen, I'm gaining weight. I'm not voiding. I'm drinking a lot of water, but I'm retaining the water." Before sending Shalon home, the nurse gave her a prescription for the blood pressure medication nifedipine, which is often used to treat pregnancy-related hypertension.

Emory Healthcare "is dedicated to the highest quality patient care," it said in an email. It declined to answer questions about Shalon's care, citing patient confidentiality.

Shalon and Wanda stopped at the pharmacy, then decided to go out to dinner with the baby. While they ate, they talked about a trip Shalon had planned for the three of them to take in just a few weeks. Ever since Sam III had died, Wanda and Shalon made a point of traveling someplace special on painful anniversaries. To mark his 40th birthday and the eighth anniversary of his death, Shalon had gotten the idea of going to Dubai. ("It's cheap," Shalon had told Wanda. "The money is worth so much more there. It's supposed to be beautiful.") She had long ago purchased their tickets and ordered the baby's passport. Now Wanda was worried - would she be feeling well enough to make such a big trip with an infant? Shalon wasn't willing to give up hope just yet. Wanda recalls her saying, "I'll be fine, I'll be fine."

They got home and sat in Shalon's bedroom for a while, laughing and playing with the baby. Around 8:30 p.m., Shalon suddenly declared, "I just don't know, Mom, I just don't feel well." She took one of the blood pressure pills. An hour later, while she and Wanda were chatting, Shalon clutched her heart, gasped and passed out.

Paramedics arrived to find Shalon on the floor near the foot of her bed "pulseless and not breathing..." They tried to stabilize her, then rushed her to Atlanta's Northside Hospital, just a couple of miles from her home. In the emergency room, doctors discovered that the breathing tube had been "incorrectly placed," according to the ambulance service report - into her esophagus instead of her lungs. She never regained consciousness. Four days later, on Jan. 28, Wanda and Samuel withdrew life support and she died.

The news spread quickly among her colleagues at the CDC. William Callaghan, chief of the maternal and infant health branch, recalled in March that his boss, who had visited Shalon at the hospital, called to let him know. "It was a chilling phone call," said Callaghan, one of the nation's leading researchers on maternal mortality. "It certainly takes, in that moment, what I do, it made it very, very, very concrete. ... This was not about data, this was not about whether it was going up or it was going down. It was about this tragic event that happened to this woman, her family."

Northside declined to do an autopsy, telling Wanda and Samuel that none was required, they recalled. (The hospital declined to comment.) So Wanda paid $4,500 for an autopsy by the medical examiners in neighboring DeKalb County. The report came back three months later. Noting that Shalon's heart showed signs of damage consistent with hypertension, it attributed her death to complications of high blood pressure.

Wanda always knew she would be spending a lot of time caring for her granddaughter. She and Shalon loved the idea of the three of them making their way in the world together, trying to change it for the better.

Instead, Wanda has had to find a way to go on without her daughter and best friend. She took a break from her consultant work and moved into Shalon's cozy townhouse, now crowded with baby books and gear, to assume her new role. Soleil was colicky, prone to gastric problems that kept both of them up all night. Shalon's villagers stopped by often to help, but much of the time Wanda was on her own. Her grief was most acute at nights, but she couldn't let it interfere with her duties to Soleil.

Eventually the colic went away and Soleil thrived. In June, Wanda and her five-month-old granddaughter went to Chattanooga for the annual meeting of U.S. Public Health Service scientists. A new honor - the Shalon Irving Memorial (Junior) Scientist Officer of the Year Award - had been created to celebrate Shalon's legacy, and Wanda had been asked to say a few words. She handed the baby to one of Shalon's CDC colleagues and took the small stage.

"Striving for excellence is a choice," she told the audience through barely suppressed tears. "It is a commitment. ... It's a struggle to become the person you want to be. It's harder than you want. It takes longer than you want. And it takes more out of you than you expected it should."

Shalon personified excellence, Wanda said. "I don't know if Shalon became the woman that she ultimately wanted to be. But I do know that she wanted to be the woman she was."

She also knew how Shalon wanted to raise her daughter, and she was determined to do the same: reading to her, traveling with her, taking her to gymnastic and music classes. "She wanted Soleil to go to Montessori school, so I'm looking for a Montessori school for her," Wanda said. "She wanted her to be christened, we got her christened." Wanda and Soleil have developed a routine: Every morning they say hello to the photos of Shalon on the living room walls. Every evening they say goodnight. Sometimes Wanda shows Soleil the flag from her mother's casket, now encased in a wooden frame. She set aside other mementos for later - the academic writings, the certificates and awards, the manuscript of her book with Tran. If all goes according to plan, it will be published early next year.

One Saturday afternoon in October, Wanda received another book, this one compiled by Shalon's friends from the Epidemic Intelligence Service and entitled "Letters to Soleil." She put the baby on her lap and said, "I'm gonna read you some letters about your mom." One thing Wanda has tried never to do is cry in front of Soleil. But as she began reading aloud, she was sobbing. "And Soleil just kept looking at me - she couldn't understand what was going on. And about a minute later she took my glasses off with her hands and put them down and then laid her head right on my chest and started patting me. Which made me cry all the more."

Shalon was a letter-writer too. One day not long after the funeral, Wanda found a note that her daughter had written to her two years earlier, around the sixth anniversary of Sam III's death. Shalon had left it among the other important items in her computer, trusting that if something ever happened to her, Wanda would find it. The letter reads like a premonition of her own death: Shalon wasn't afraid for herself, but agonized over how it would affect her mother.

I am sorry that I have left you. On the particular day that I am writing this I have no idea how that may have occurred but know that I would never choose to leave.

I know it seems impossible right now, but please do not let this break you. I want you to be happy and smile. I want you to know that I am being watched after by my brothers and grandma and that we are all watching you. Please try not to cry. Use your energy instead to feel my love through time and space. Nothing can break the bond we have and you will forever be my mommy and I your baby girl!

Now 11 months old, Soleil has her mother's precociousness, energy and headstrong yet sweet disposition. Like the sun she was named for, "she just lights up a room when she smiles," Wanda said. She comes into Wanda's bed every night and wakes her early to play. "She'll bite my nose and kick me - 'Nana, time to get up! Time to get up!'" And so Wanda does.

Nina Martin is a reporter covering sex and gender issues. She joined ProPublica in 2013 and is based in Berkeley, Calif.

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Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth - ProPublica

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On a melancholy Saturday this past February, Shalon Irving's "village" - the friends and family she had assembled to support her as a single mother - gathered at a funeral home in a prosperous black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta to say goodbye and send her home.

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13.5 Film Analysis Outline Template Kenielle Shipman-Mayhan

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1. What are the outcomes of institutionally racist policy choices that exclude the needs of low-income minorities in the health care system?

Racist policies have led to significant disparities in healthcare for low-income minorities, particularly African Americans. Such as higher maternal and infant mortality rates as Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women, and Black infants face mortality rates more than twice that of white infants. Underfunded healthcare facilities because hospitals that serve predominantly Black and Latino communities often face financial constraints, leading to inadequate staffing and resources. Finally, policies like the Affordable Care Act show disparities in health outcomes persist due to systemic issues rooted in historical segregation and discrimination.

2. How does the intersectionality of the unconscious bias, distrust in the healthcare system, lack of health insurance and lack of health education affect the African American community?

Unconscious biases, distrust in the healthcare system, lack of health insurance, and inadequate health education adversely affect the African American community. As Healthcare providers may harbor unspoken biases, which leads to misdiagnoses or undertreatment of Black patients. Historically the mistreatment and ongoing discrimination contributes to a deep rooted mistrust in the healthcare system among African Americans, resulting in delayed care or avoidance of medical services. Along with African Americans being disproportionately uninsured, limiting access to preventive care and necessary treatments.

3. State THREE strategies that you feel can address the issues raised in questions one and two.

Training healthcare providers in cultural humility can improve patient and provider relationships and reduce biases.

Policies to increase insurance coverage amongst low income and minority populations can enhance access to care.

Developing targeted health education

leadership can empower African American communities with knowledge to make informed health choices.

4. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet. State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue.

https://racismharmshealth.berkeley.edu/health-care/how-institutional-racism-shapes-inequality-within-the-health-care-system-and-affects-health/

This article highlights an analysis of how systemic racism is embedded in the healthcare system, which leads to unequal access and outcomes. It showcases historical evidence and current connections, showing the understanding of the various nature of healthcare disparities.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.

What I have learned is the impact of historical policies, such as redlining, on present-day health disparities. And how these policies have led to segregated neighborhoods with limited healthcare resources, contributing to ongoing inequities in health outcomes.

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How Institutional Racism Shapes Inequality Within the Healthcare System & Harms Health • Racism and Health

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Institutional racism is embedded in the US healthcare system, and the general population sees it as the norm.

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15.5 Psychological Adaptation and Mental Health Discussion

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15.5 Psychological Adaptation and Mental Health Discussion

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1. What is the role of the Black Church and the mental health of the African American community?

2. How is culturally competent care vital to the success of the mental health relationship between the provider of clinical mental health services and the African American community?

3. State THREE strategies that you feel can address the issues raised in questions one and two.

4. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet. State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.